Introduction - The Invisible RefugeesMost of the Pandit refugees, mislabeled as
"migrants", live in squalid camps with spiralling health and

economic problems. That the Muslim-led state government of Jammu and
Kashmir has ignored their plight comes as
no surprise since the oppression of Kashmiri Pandits did not start in
1989, but much earlier. Between 1947 and 1989, hundreds of thousands
of Kashmiri Pandits had left the valley to escape oppression by the
Muslim majority. It is clear that the return of the nearly half a
million Kashmiri Pandits to their native land willnot be facilitated simply by the end of
Pakistani-inspired terrorism in the state. While acessation
of the targeting of Pandits by Islamic terrorists in the state is the
essential first step,an end to the
oppression by majority Muslims would be the next essential step to
enable thePandits to return as equal
citizens.